


Wolfspiration

by psocoptera



Category: Huge, Iskryne Series - Elizabeth Bear & Sarah Monette
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-14
Updated: 2012-02-14
Packaged: 2017-10-31 04:09:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/339724
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/psocoptera/pseuds/psocoptera
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Camp Victory offers the unique opportunity to meet and potentially match with a Labrador Wolf companion* in addition to daily physical activity and lifestyle coaching.  *Matching not guaranteed."</p><p>Becca's wanted a wolf-sib since forever.  What's Will even doing here if she doesn't?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wolfspiration

"So how does this work?" the girl in front of her asks, loudly and suspiciously. "They give the wolves to the people who lose the most weight, or the people who don't?"

Becca lowers her book. The girl wasn't talking to her, but she feels a pang of sympathetic embarrassment at the thought of being so... audibly ill-informed.

"The wolves pick," she says, not quite under her breath.

"But then they make you get skinny," the girl says, narrowing her eyes.

Becca cringes again. But there's also something kind of compelling about the loud questions, like the girl doesn't even care if the rest of the line is listening, and staring at her. Like she hasn't even _noticed_.

"They support physical activity and enhance confidence," she says quickly, aware that she's pretty much quoting the camp website. "Bonding is a lifetime commitment to health."

"And you want to do that?" the girl asks skeptically. "Everybody here is so desperate to de-fat that you're willing to sign on for life with a personal watchdog?"

Becca blinks. The wolves are so much more than that! The most amazing, beautiful companion, that can _read your mind_ , and will never abandon you... and the camp is super-hard to get into, not to mention crazy expensive, she's so lucky to be able to come back, after she didn't get picked last summer... "Don't you want to be here?" she blurts out.

The other girl crosses her arms. "No," she says flatly, and Becca bites her lip, she's always... "It's my parents," the girl says, more quietly than anything else she's said, almost what Becca would call a normal voice. "They've got this idea... anyways, whatever. Will Rader," she adds, sticking out her hand.

"Oh! Becca," Becca says, fumbling her book. "Becca Huffstatter."

She sticks out her hand and then forgets to shake because coming towards them is the camp director, Dr. Rand, and Janet is with her.

Even after an entire previous summer of seeing her around the camp, she still takes Becca's breath away, all majestic golden grace. Becca knows that fighting wolves are much bigger, that the breeding incident that gave rise to labrador-wolves led to an animal much reduced in size as well as aggression, but she's never seen one up close, and it's hard to imagine anything _more_ than Janet. She's like dragons and kyree and every wolf-sibling novel Becca's ever read, real and coming right towards her.

No, towards Will. She's staring at her, hard, and Becca is pretty sure that if Janet looked at her like that, she would have to look away, duck her head and try to make herself smaller. But Will stares back. Dr. Rand catches up with her sister and there are words between her and Will, that Becca, in the penumbra of Janet's attention, doesn't follow, but the whole time Will's eyes stay locked with Janet's, wide and unblinking, unflinching.

Someday Becca will give an embarrassing speech about how that was the moment that she knew that Will would be sister to a queen, and that this would be hugely important to her, Becca, personally. How she could never have imagined the details - her brother, the first mating, the puppies, the ring - but she knew, knew about Will, and this is as far as she'll get before Waya and Donut start circling her and Will, herding them into a kiss, and all the guests will clap and it will be almost as intense as mating, right there at the head table, the love and satisfaction reflecting and echoing between the four of them.

Maybe that's all in Janet's brown eyes, but Becca doesn't know it yet. She only knows that when Janet finally turns away from Will, her gaze flicks over Becca, and she hears something, smells something, like pepper and coconut. "Hello," she whispers back, and only then, as Dr. Rand follows her sister away, does she realize she's still holding Will's hand.

"I had no idea," Will is saying. "She's like freedom on four legs. They think this is supposed to make me _give in_ to them?"

Becca quietly extracts her hand. Will is watching Janet as she trots away, and her gaze is hard and hungry and yet somehow on the brink of a smile.

"We meet the puppies second week," she tells Will, and Will turns that fierce look on her.

"Tell me everything you know," she orders, and Becca's not sure she's ever heard such a beautiful request.


End file.
